"Oh my God, Arnie killed Tookie!"
-"You bastards!"
I’ve not weighed in on the Tookie Williams thing because, quite frankly, it’s old hat. He was a murderer (amongst other nasty things). He was convicted, sentenced to death and has exhausted every possible appeal. He paid his debt to society early this morning. I’m pro-death penalty so I’ve got no issue with this. Got bless America. Justice served.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take offense to anything some idiot celebrity or civil rights activist would have to say but this sort of crap irritates me.
Let’s break it down. Because it's my blog, my comments will be bold and colorful, while the comments of the galatically stupid are merely italicized:
"My brother died in June. Taken by cancer. Too young. Full of hope and possibility. "
My sincere condolences. It’s horrible to lose someone you are close to.
"Last night another cancer killed a man about the same age. The paraphernalia familiar. IVs and gurneys. Lethal drugs dripping into his veins. "
Here comes the moral equivilency…
"Ending a life that had found redemption."
Redemption is the act of re-paying a debt or being released from a harmful situation. By definition, it was ending his life which resulted in his redemption. Whatever good things he did while in prison were not redemption.
“Rendering all of a murderer’s attempts at self-preservation fruitless.” would be the more accurate description.
"But this time the cancer was on the outside. Racism killed Tookie Williams. "
No, actually, it was a cocktail of lethal chemical administered in accordance with California law that killed him.
"I don't know enough about his case to argue the fine points…"
Better to keep your mouth shut and let people believe that you are ignorant than to speak and remove any doubt…
"…but I do know that Charlie Manson is still incarcerated in a California prison. "
Doubt offically removed!
Charlie Manson’s sentence was commuted after the CA Supreme Court overturned all death sentences imposed prior to 1972. Once overturned, there's no possibility of those death sentences being reinstated. He is still alive as the result of a bad court decision which overturned his sentence…as well as hundreds of others.
"One man is white, the other Black. I do know that Williams grew up in black ghetto where gang violence was a response to screaming inequity and lack of possibility. "
Check out Manson’s biography. His childhood was just as impoverished as Tookie’s, if not more so. White and black doesn’t enter into it. Also, please note that there are many who grew up in black ghettos and managed to avoid death row.
By the way...why capitalize the "b" in "black"? "Black" is not a proper noun. Let me guess: white guilt?
"So we punish the victim."
No, Tookie punished the victims 26 years ago, as depicted in this happy little snapshot. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE.
"We repeat the act that we condemn him for and congratulate ourselves on closure and righteousness. "
There is no repetition here. He committed murder. California imposed a death sentence. Two entirely different things.
"Our governator feels he is able to decide the moral and legal culpability of a human life."
Actually, the courts (several of them) decided the legal culpability of a human life (by the way, what a badly worded sentence).
Included in the powers bestowed on Arnold when you elected him Governor was the power to say that the courts were wrong in imposing the maximum possible sentence. He deferred to the court's opinion. Apparently, he gave more weight to the courts opinions than those of Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx, shameful as that may be.
"What if the lack of remorse he cited in his refusal to grant clemency is really based on innocence? Has he no self doubt? Would that make him a girlie man? Or a human being?"
It’s funny you mention girlie man. I was ready to tag him with that same moniker if he DID grant clemency.
"So many cases on death row in Illinois were found to be faulty that the governor there emptied the holding cells, aware of his inability to make such judgments."
Uhhh..bullshit. He did it as a final “screw you” to his constituency (and his successor) less than 48 hours before leaving office. He had to leave office because there’s no way this corrupt SOB would have been re-elected and, because of him, Illinois may never elect another Republican to the office.
As we speak, he is on trial for racketeering and fraud charges. Let’s not make a hero out of him. It wasn’t his nobility that caused him to release 200 people from their sentences.
"And what of the death penalty itself. It is not a deterrent. "
Based on the current prison population in the US, neither is incarceration. Do you suggest we abolish that as well?
"Only a perverse sick spectacle."
You should know sick and perverse. Your son is currently performing homo-erotic scenes at a theater near you. Your daughter’s sadomasochistic scenes on the big screen were quite tittilating as well.
Oh…perhaps I’m judging too harshly. They’re just earning a paycheck, right? Nothing morally objectionable about making a living, I suppose.
We are one of the few nations left on earth who still conduct executions.
Thank God for that.
"Who continue to put to death people who have actually been reformed and changed by their time in prison."
If a person becomes fiscally responsibility after getting themselves into financial trouble, does that mean they should not be obligated to repay their debts from when they were young and irresponsible?
"No one benefits from an inhuman practice that institutionalizes the very crime it is supposed to be punishing."
I’m sure that the families of the victims (the real ones…not Tookie) would take issue with that comment. They may not benefit, per se, but there's a closure and relief that they likely feel. Their loved-ones have been taken from them. Would you begrudge them the psychological benefits which come from seeing their loved-one's killers punished?
"It makes us all killers."
No. It makes us citizens of a society which believes that the punishment should fit the crime.
"How different in the end is our governor from Tookie Williams?"
Well, to start with, Arnold woke up this morning next to his wife and headed downstairs for a hearty breakfast before he started his day. That’s one difference.
There’s probably about 692,001 other ways that a successful, multi-millionaire immigrant who became Governor of the largest state in the country is different from a murdering gang-banger, but I haven’t the time to list them all.
"Yesterday he committed murder and by his own report he feels no remorse."
Yesterday, he chose not to override the system of law in this fine republic and for that he should be commended.
He should not demonized by the weak-minded for doing his job.
I’ve not weighed in on the Tookie Williams thing because, quite frankly, it’s old hat. He was a murderer (amongst other nasty things). He was convicted, sentenced to death and has exhausted every possible appeal. He paid his debt to society early this morning. I’m pro-death penalty so I’ve got no issue with this. Got bless America. Justice served.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take offense to anything some idiot celebrity or civil rights activist would have to say but this sort of crap irritates me.
Let’s break it down. Because it's my blog, my comments will be bold and colorful, while the comments of the galatically stupid are merely italicized:
"My brother died in June. Taken by cancer. Too young. Full of hope and possibility. "
My sincere condolences. It’s horrible to lose someone you are close to.
"Last night another cancer killed a man about the same age. The paraphernalia familiar. IVs and gurneys. Lethal drugs dripping into his veins. "
Here comes the moral equivilency…
"Ending a life that had found redemption."
Redemption is the act of re-paying a debt or being released from a harmful situation. By definition, it was ending his life which resulted in his redemption. Whatever good things he did while in prison were not redemption.
“Rendering all of a murderer’s attempts at self-preservation fruitless.” would be the more accurate description.
"But this time the cancer was on the outside. Racism killed Tookie Williams. "
No, actually, it was a cocktail of lethal chemical administered in accordance with California law that killed him.
"I don't know enough about his case to argue the fine points…"
Better to keep your mouth shut and let people believe that you are ignorant than to speak and remove any doubt…
"…but I do know that Charlie Manson is still incarcerated in a California prison. "
Doubt offically removed!
Charlie Manson’s sentence was commuted after the CA Supreme Court overturned all death sentences imposed prior to 1972. Once overturned, there's no possibility of those death sentences being reinstated. He is still alive as the result of a bad court decision which overturned his sentence…as well as hundreds of others.
"One man is white, the other Black. I do know that Williams grew up in black ghetto where gang violence was a response to screaming inequity and lack of possibility. "
Check out Manson’s biography. His childhood was just as impoverished as Tookie’s, if not more so. White and black doesn’t enter into it. Also, please note that there are many who grew up in black ghettos and managed to avoid death row.
By the way...why capitalize the "b" in "black"? "Black" is not a proper noun. Let me guess: white guilt?
"So we punish the victim."
No, Tookie punished the victims 26 years ago, as depicted in this happy little snapshot. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE.
"We repeat the act that we condemn him for and congratulate ourselves on closure and righteousness. "
There is no repetition here. He committed murder. California imposed a death sentence. Two entirely different things.
"Our governator feels he is able to decide the moral and legal culpability of a human life."
Actually, the courts (several of them) decided the legal culpability of a human life (by the way, what a badly worded sentence).
Included in the powers bestowed on Arnold when you elected him Governor was the power to say that the courts were wrong in imposing the maximum possible sentence. He deferred to the court's opinion. Apparently, he gave more weight to the courts opinions than those of Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx, shameful as that may be.
"What if the lack of remorse he cited in his refusal to grant clemency is really based on innocence? Has he no self doubt? Would that make him a girlie man? Or a human being?"
It’s funny you mention girlie man. I was ready to tag him with that same moniker if he DID grant clemency.
"So many cases on death row in Illinois were found to be faulty that the governor there emptied the holding cells, aware of his inability to make such judgments."
Uhhh..bullshit. He did it as a final “screw you” to his constituency (and his successor) less than 48 hours before leaving office. He had to leave office because there’s no way this corrupt SOB would have been re-elected and, because of him, Illinois may never elect another Republican to the office.
As we speak, he is on trial for racketeering and fraud charges. Let’s not make a hero out of him. It wasn’t his nobility that caused him to release 200 people from their sentences.
"And what of the death penalty itself. It is not a deterrent. "
Based on the current prison population in the US, neither is incarceration. Do you suggest we abolish that as well?
"Only a perverse sick spectacle."
You should know sick and perverse. Your son is currently performing homo-erotic scenes at a theater near you. Your daughter’s sadomasochistic scenes on the big screen were quite tittilating as well.
Oh…perhaps I’m judging too harshly. They’re just earning a paycheck, right? Nothing morally objectionable about making a living, I suppose.
We are one of the few nations left on earth who still conduct executions.
Thank God for that.
"Who continue to put to death people who have actually been reformed and changed by their time in prison."
If a person becomes fiscally responsibility after getting themselves into financial trouble, does that mean they should not be obligated to repay their debts from when they were young and irresponsible?
"No one benefits from an inhuman practice that institutionalizes the very crime it is supposed to be punishing."
I’m sure that the families of the victims (the real ones…not Tookie) would take issue with that comment. They may not benefit, per se, but there's a closure and relief that they likely feel. Their loved-ones have been taken from them. Would you begrudge them the psychological benefits which come from seeing their loved-one's killers punished?
"It makes us all killers."
No. It makes us citizens of a society which believes that the punishment should fit the crime.
"How different in the end is our governor from Tookie Williams?"
Well, to start with, Arnold woke up this morning next to his wife and headed downstairs for a hearty breakfast before he started his day. That’s one difference.
There’s probably about 692,001 other ways that a successful, multi-millionaire immigrant who became Governor of the largest state in the country is different from a murdering gang-banger, but I haven’t the time to list them all.
"Yesterday he committed murder and by his own report he feels no remorse."
Yesterday, he chose not to override the system of law in this fine republic and for that he should be commended.
He should not demonized by the weak-minded for doing his job.
posted by Big Bad Dad at 2:12 PM
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